Senior Noah Schell has been on debate for four years and has gained recognition for his dedication to the team by competing in various events and debates. After four years of debating Policy, Schell is thrilled that Policy will still be going. “I’ve been super proud with the amount of novices that we have this year doing Policy. It gives me hope that once I graduate this year, Policy at Parkway West will still continue to be around. I’m happier with the way the team has grown and just learning how to do policy than I am with receiving the award,” Schell said.
Noah Schell
Senior Noah Schell joined the debate team during his freshman year. Schell is now the executive officer of the Speech and Debate team and the captain of Policy debate.
“[Policy] has a lot of abstract ideas. It lets me use my interest in math and computer science and learn more about how the U.S. federal government should engage with those ideas when making policies,” Schell said.
Although Schell understands what he’s advocating for, he struggles to find the right words to say.
“[You need to know] what the correct argument is to make, even if it’s not necessarily the argument that’s going to win you the round. A lot of time, competitive debaters get caught up in wanting to win the tournament and win the debate round that they’ll make any argument to make that happen. Something that’s challenging is even when you have an argument that could win you the round, if it’s not an ethical argument, restraining yourself from making that can oftentimes be challenging. At Parkway West, we strive to only make arguments that we believe in and that we think are moral and ethical, so that’s something that is challenging but very rewarding when done well,” Schell said.
Schell began to gain confidence in himself through continuous practice.
“I’ve gotten better at winning more rounds now than I did when I was a freshman,” Schell said. “I feel more confident in my ability to communicate and to engage with different kinds of arguments and just learn about the structure of a debate and do it more successfully.”
During Schell’s freshman year, he received the ‘Best Novice Debater’ award. In sophomore year, Schell and his partner qualified to state for Policy, and in his junior year, Schell received the ‘Best Varsity Debater’ award. He has qualified nationally in extemporaneous speaking, domestic extemporaneous speaking and congressional debate.
“It’s often really hard to predict who’s going to win debate rounds, even when you think you made great arguments. It’s easy to lose just because the judges may not agree with you. So that’s something that my partner and I have been challenged with; some of our best rounds that we’ve had, we’ve actually lost,” Schell said. “The work that you put into it and what you learn in preparing for the debates and the tournaments is more rewarding than the outcome of the tournament.”